SEC Chairman Christopher Cox announced today that the source code for the Interactive Financial Report Viewer that enables investors to analyze companies’ interactive data filings is now available via its Web site for free use by the market. Chairman Cox also said the SEC will participate in a news conference with XBRL US and others on Tuesday, Sept. 25 in New York to announce a major breakthrough in the introduction of interactive financial reporting.

Interactive data is powered by XBRL, a computer software language that labels companies’ financial and other data with codes from standard lists so that investors and analysts can more easily locate and analyze desired information.

The SEC’s XBRL Voluntary Financial Reporting Program is an initiative to make filings more accessible and understandable to the common investor by allowing public companies to submit documents in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) format as exhibits to periodic reports and investment company act filings. The Interactive Financial Report Viewer, first released in December 2006, allows investors to view and analyze the XBRL-based filings submitted to the SEC.